Mike Sullivan remembers when he used to drive up and down Main Street in Brockton as a young man.

“It was a very vibrant area,” said Sullivan, whose wife is from Brockton.

“It’s very vibrant today, there’s a lot of traffic, but what businesses want is this traffic to stop,” he said, calling small businesses “the engines of job creation.”

Sullivan, a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate along with Cohasset businessman Gabriel Gomez and Norfolk State Representative Dan Winslow, toured downtown Brockton on Saturday with John Merian of the Downtown Business Association.

Sullivan said he wants to see small businesses in areas like Brockton have the freedom to thrive, bringing back the entire area with them.

“This is where I think often-times government can best serve by listening,” he said. “Find out from the business community what’s really going to work.

Sullivan made stops at Merian’s business, Tuxedos by Merian, as well as the Marvelous Cuts barbershop and Vicente’s Market before heading to neighborhoods to knock on doors.

Lex DaLuz, 26, of Marvelous Cuts told Sullivan he was happy to bring his business to Brockton center.

“We want to get everyone downtown to believe in the movement,” said DaLuz.

Merian said Sullivan did a lot of work helping to clean up the center of the city when he was Plymouth County district attorney.

“Mike was a great listener,” Merian said. “That was the first step to this whole planning process.”

Sullivan said that the most important factor in the growth of a city like Brockton is the local businesses, saying he sees the government’s role as “minimizing red tape.”

“The crime to me is not the issue at all, it’s getting businesses to invest,” he said. “There’s a tremendous value in communities like Brockton in terms of investment.”